We all went to bed quietly. It was an unspoken agreement. Got to sleep. Forget about the day's events. Hope for the best when the sun rose.
Of course, there was an epic mess on Earth that we were all also avoiding. Their families probably heard the news by now, and we were probably all suspected terrorists by now. Heck, even shifty Robert came back to spend the night. Jumping away from every sign of humanity was probably exhausting, anyway.
But we didn't confront any of us about any of this. We all felt it. The pressure. The excitement. The pure thrill of power. The duel was supposed to be fun. It never meant to hurt. Not like this. This was never supposed to happen.
My dreams, unfortunately, were less kind.
"No fair," Aaron said, staring at my flaming stick. It was the match, all right.
I smiled. "But I'm going to win," I said with a half-flushed knowledge of today's events swirling in my dream mind.
The vortex appeared the same, but instead of pulling me in, it pushed me away. I dug my heels in just to stay stationary. It whirred with a screech like a dying cat, which was wrong in every way for a gravity distortion.
"Aaron? What are you doing?" I screamed. "What in the world is that?" He jumped through the vortex, disappearing.
Then Nerd appeared beside me. He took my hand.
"Hey Nerd," he said, pulling me close.
And I jolted awake.
The sun shined weakly through the windows. Since the sun was so far from Mars, the light was considerably less intense, but if someone decided to remove the sun, it would take longer for us to notice on Mars than on Earth. A good advantage, considering my group.
"I have a headache," Aaron groaned. I looked across the room and saw that Aaron was sitting up in his bottom bunk.
"Take an amoxicillin," I said. "It's on the table outside, in the center room."
"What?" he said, blinking at me. "Why?"
"You know, like your burn? But if you want to die of an infected face, see if I care."
"How do you know that wasn't my plan all along?" Aaron said. He got up anyway and walked into the center area. The bunk above him was still occupied, with Jason soundly asleep.
I got up and climbed down to the floor. Robert's bunk below mine was empty. He probably got up real early normally anyway.
Robert and Jack were drinking coffee from a new coffee maker Robert had managed to steal last night. The atoms from the old coffee maker had been repurposed as petroleum jelly for Aaron.
"Can you make more Vicodin?" Aaron asked me, staring blank-eyed at Robert's coffee cup.
"Um, wouldn't it be safer for Bobby to just steal you some?" I asked. As usual, I was the voice of scientific reason.
Robert raised an eyebrow at the mention of his name. Aaron shrugged. "And when did you care about my safety?"
"Just setting a good example for me real friends," I joked. "But it seems everyone else thinks you could use some defective or potentially lethal Vicodin, so I'll just–"
"It's fine," Robert said, getting up. "I'm getting better." He stepped into the space-time tear.
And he immediately stepped back with a crate of Motrin and more food.
"Space and time manipulation," I said, impressed.
"Is it just me, or did Aaron ask for Vicodin?" Jack brought up.
"Same difference," Aaron said, reaching over to grab a bottle. I was about to point out the narcotic properties of Vicodin that Motrin didn't contain when Robert stopped Aaron.
"No," Robert said. "I have a much better plan." He poured Aaron a cup of coffee. "Cream and sugar?"
Aaron shook his head. "Just black."
"Then that makes the next part of my plan so much easier," Robert smiled. And that next part seemed to require Robert shoving all the tablets of all the bottles of Motrin down Aaron's throat. I sighed.
"This is ridiculous," Jack commented as Robert poured the third bottle of Motrin in Aaron's coffee.
"I know, right?" I replied to Jack.
Aaron eyed the cup suspiciously. "Am I supposed to drink that?"
"Of course. What did you think I'd make you do, shove it up your butt?" Robert quipped.
"Um." Aaron didn't look any more convinced.
After the fourth bottle, Robert turned to me. "Coffee?"
"I'd like heavy cream, no sugar," I said. "And no Motrin."
"I don't have any heavy cream," Robert said, pushing Aaron's cup towards Aaron. "Hey man, drink it," he said to Aaron.
"It's fine," I said, grabbing the half-and-half. I swirled it until it thickened.
"There, the closest thing I could get to heavy cream," I said triumphantly, pouring some into my coffee.
"How did you do that?" Jack asked.
"I analyzed the fat in the milk and just made more using, well, the milk itself," I explained.
"That sounds complicated," Jack complained.
Aaron finally acquiesced and hesitantly took a sip of his drugged coffee. He instantly recoiled. "Sugar," he hissed.
Robert sighed, resorting to pelting Aaron with Motrin tablets. Aaron mostly shielded his face, which despite the macho nerdisms, probably did hurt a lot.
I laughed at their silly antics. "Well, so does modifying the space between atoms," I said to Jack. "And traveling through space-time tears, or controlling the strength of gravity or friction."
Jack shrugged. "I guess so."
Aaron threw a bottle of Motrin at Robert and missed, hitting Cole in the doorway.
"Hey, watch it," he said.
I murmured, "Hi," and he sat down across from me.
"So, now what?" Cole asked.
"We should get back to Earth," Jack said.
"Why?" Aaron and I responded simultaneously.
"Well, all those people Claire killed…" Jack smartly trailed off.
"They. Aren't. Dead. And let's not even mention the Kremlin." I insisted. I knew that sick feeling in my stomach. Everyone at school had congregated either at the parking lot or in the front of the school. By exploding that car, I could have killed a lot of people.
"I don't know if I can put people back together," I said. "And after they have a body again, I don't exactly know how to bring them back to life."
"That's not what you said yesterday," Cole said.
"I had no idea yesterday. I mean, this only started yesterday!" I screamed.
"Claire, these people are dead," Aaron said. "Our classmates. Our friends."
"When this is over, everything will be fine," I said, closing my eyes. Please, I begged my writer. Please reset everything after this is over.
My writer assured me everything would be fine. As long as Aaron and Cole didn't die before the showdown. I sighed with relief. That shouldn't be too hard.
I smiled thinly to my gang. "I promise everything will be fine."
"Really?" Aaron asked. "Because 'this' is not fine," he said, pointing at his face.
"You will live," Robert said. "Stop complaining." 855Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡodsod5UXaV
Jason apparently woke up at some point. He walked in and grabbed a box of microwavable mac 'n cheese. "What's up?" he asked, sliding over to the microwave.
"Interesting choice of breakfast," I said.
"You know, there's really nothing else," Cole said, defending Jason. I lightly punched in the shoulder teasingly.
Only to have my fist come right back with equal and opposite force. 855Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7VnWoFjM4
